MysteryMen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

After the brilliant Pixar film The Incredibles, I don't think it is necessary to make an animated superhero satire. And after the disappointing Mystery Men, I don't think it is a good idea to let Ben Stiller make another superhero satire. But DreamWorks Animation is going ahead and making a superhero satire, titled Master Mind, and it has Stiller producing the movie, as well as possibly voicing the main character. The plot of the movie focuses on a supervillain who loses his enjoyment in life after he kills his superhero rival. If it isn't enough that such a storyline has been used either directly or implied in countless comics and some straight superhero films, the satire will need to go much further. Since the superhero's name is Uberman, though, I don't expect a whole lot of brilliant ideas for smart comedy.

My other concern with the film is how it will play to children. Uberman is killed in the first few minutes of the film, which could be harmful for kids to see. And then the rest of the movie apparently deals with a depressed criminal. Sure, there have been tons of cartoons through the years that centered on the villain, and this movie will certainly have the supervillain finding redemption, but it still sounds a little heavy -- mostly because of the murderous characteristics -- for children to deal with. I mean, there weren't a whole lot of deaths in animation when I was growing up, save for Bambi's mother (not that I honestly would have cared since I was watching horror films in first grade). The movie will be directed by first-timers Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson, both seasoned vets of the DreamWorks Animation team, and was written by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons. According to Stiller, who was making a joke on the long process of making an animated feature, it will come out in 15-20 years.

It just got a little harder for you to buy bootleg movies in Chinatown, and your chances of getting Superman Returns off the internet are a little smaller. But Dan Glickman, head of the MPAA, and all the studio heads in Hollywood slept a little better last night, because on Wednesday, the FBI arrested 13 people from two separate groups responsible for what is believed to be half of all the camcorder piracy in the U.S. (and one-quarter of it worldwide). Even though nobody on Earth really likes these shoddy copies -- they are videotaped inside of theaters, so you can see and hear the audience MST3K-style -- camcorded new releases account for an estimated 90-percent of the world's pirated movies.

I never understood the reason that people buy camcorded copies, even at only $5 each. My one and only curiosity was seven years ago, when I watched a bootleg VHS copy of Mystery Men. It was dark and the sound was horrible. To this day I still don't know what is going on in that movie. I've heard the worst is with subtitled films, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but isn't the attraction of that film the visuals, anyway? I can only understand people getting bootlegs of comedies, which tend not to contain remarkable cinematography or special effects.

So even though I think Glickman has been going overboard with his anti-piracy campaign, I'm pretty happy that these two piracy rings will be put away (like most criminal enterprises, though, another two groups will likely pop up in their place). Nobody should ever watch a movie in such bad shape. Sure we all have reasons for why we hate the theaters, but the movies really do look so much better on the big screen. At least wait three months for the DVD if you're that cheap. But for the sake of cinema, please don't waste your time with camcorded versions. ...